Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Occupy and The Bottom

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Remember the "Occupy" movement? Late last summer and early in the fall, all kinds of Occupy protests popped up all over the country. Goodness, it even came to my little town!

I think back on this, because I truly believe there is an inverse correlation between public rage and the financial markets. When things are soaring (like now), the sheeple are fine to let the ultra-rich run right over them. Or, at the very least, the hippies don't get the press converage that they would otherwise.

But when the seams are starting to tear, then the public allows themselves to get pissed off at the powers that be.

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The Silicon Valley Top

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Late last year, I paid a visit to Josh Brown ("The Reformed Broker") and had a pleasant chat. I went to his blog a week later and put up a comment, shown below, stating my belief that Facebook's IPO day would mark an important turning point in the market.

I forgot all about this, but totally by chance, a few days ago, I re-visited that comment and I saw that someone had put in a snide reply.

0409-valleybubble

Errr, actually, Facebook only goes public one time, so I'm not sure how I could make such a declaration "a lot". It's a specific day, and I do believe that Facebook's IPO will be a seminal event. There's only one Facebook, and it has only one IPO. It's not like there are twenty other Facebook-equivalents waiting behind it, and because of the public's fascination with this offering, I do believe it'll mark a tipping point.

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